I’ve come to expect some unusual twists with my travels throughout Indonesia but…a decommissioned Soviet-era submarine functioning as a tourist attraction in the heart of Surabaya city centre?

That is so perfectly unexpected that of course I’m sold on visiting…who wouldn’t be?!

The Monumen Kapal Selam (submarine monument - often locally referred to as simply Monkasel) is situated on the side of the river Kalimas in Surabaya and consists of a single submarine named Pasopati (Javanese for passionate), originally built in Vladivostok, Russia in 1952.

This was subsequently commissioned into service for the Indonesian Navy on 29th January 1962 and, amongst other activities, saw action in Operation Trikora (an Indonesian military operation to annex West Papua - Western New Guinea, which was governed by the Dutch at the time - that took place during 1961 and 1962).

Pasopati was used by the Indonesian Navy up until 1990 and became a tourist attraction from the 15th July 1998 onwards. I have to say that whoever thought of making this a tourist attraction is a genius as the quirkiness of a submarine in the middle of a city centre is just perfect.

After paying the 15,000 IDR visitor fee (roughly £0.81 GBP or $1.07 USD) I climbed the external steps to enter what would be my first submarine experience (albeit on dry land and in a decommissioned vessel at that). The first thing that struck me about being inside this submarine is just how little room there actually is for movement.

I wasn’t expecting much in the way of space, given the nature of this type of vessel, but I was very surprised by just how cramped and restrictive the internal environment of the submarine actually was. This was further impacted by the vast amounts of internal pipework, electrical components, dials, valves and the very obvious and extremely, in my opinion at least, user unfriendly layout of each region.

How could Navy personnel have used that vessel without persistent risk of low-level injury? The submarine felt like a death trap. The position and size of certain portholes that required various contortions to pass through. The ridiculously cramped radio room. The lack of manoeuvrability. The various structures of each area of the submarine that jut out into space forcing visitors to move slowly and with caution is nothing short of ridiculous.

I can’t even begin to believe that this particular submarine would have been even remotely useful in the context of seafaring/military operations (and I’m surprised it was actually in service for almost 30 years).

Then there was the issue with the temperature inside the submarine.

Even with the air-conditioning that had been installed the heat and stuffiness within the vessel was quite uncomfortable. I dread to think how much worse that must have been (thanks to the generators and various electrical equipment installed within there) when the submarine was actually operational. It was challenging enough spending 30 minutes inside the vessel as a tourist so having to live and work within such conditions must have been absolute hell for the Navy personnel to endure.

I can’t fully comprehend how badly designed the vessel was and why it was designed that way - even as fascinating as it is to walk through there. It just doesn’t make sense….maybe the soviet designers/engineers were hitting the vodka at the time? How can you commission a military vessel purportedly designed for warfare that is actually quite restrictive and dangerous for its operatives to work within? Isn’t that kind of self-defeating? How can any navy achieve military victory under such conditions?

These observations/gripes aside (more puzzlement at bad design than anything else) the submarine was a fantastic attraction to visit and a very interesting window into that particular area of Soviet Naval warfare (albeit with this specific vessel having been used by the Indonesian Navy up until 1990).

It’s actually quite amazing to take a walk through the internals of the submarine and see what the Indonesian Navy personnel would have had to have worked with (as well as spending time living in there depending on how long certain operations lasted).

If you’re visiting Surabaya then be sure to spend 30 minutes taking a tour of this particular attraction (although be warned: it can get quite packed with visitors so the limited space that is available becomes incredibly limited to the point of almost absurdity….don’t let this put you off though - the submarine is an amazing and worthy attraction to visit).

Fee

Visitors, at the time of writing, need to purchase a ticket costing 15,000 IDR to enter and tour the submarine.

Getting there

Monumen Kapal Selam is situated at Jalan Pemuda No.39 on the bank of the Kalimas river in the heart of Surabaya city centre and is best reached by taxi, motorbike or other form of public transport (as Surabaya, like many Indonesian Cities, is not very pedestrian friendly).